Friday, June 5, 2009

Professional Peeves #1 and 2

I put these on Twitter in shorter forms, but they bear repeating.

Peeve #1 - Clients that fail to process invoices in a timely manner. It shouldn't take more than 30 days. Think about it: when do you pay for your groceries? At the store, or after you've gone home, eaten them and digested them? Exactly. There are so many things we pay upfront for in life, but creative talent in the marketing and communications field is generally not one of them. We need to change this. First, to my colleagues, stop calling yourselves freelancers. The word 'free' is in that title. You are consultants. Second, to clients, creative types are more engaged and do better work when they don't have chase after payments or worry about paying the bills. Surprising, but true.

Peeve #2 - Uncommunicative communicators. What has happened to some of the people who work in my profession? We have more tools than ever with which to communicate and yet some of us stubbornly refuse to use them to respond to inquiries. Much easier to delete voicemail and email than to actually answer them with good news or bad. My position: if you are a communicator and you cannot take a moment to return a call or an email, you're in the wrong profession. Every call or email you don't return reflects poorly on you as an individual and profession, not to mention on your organization. I've always wondered how best to shake my colleagues from their indifference or complacency. Perhaps an ABP on several social media sites would get their attention? A call to colleagues or family to express concern over the person's welfare? Seriously, if you can't or won't do the job you are supposed to do, quit. You're wasting space and goodwill that another more qualified person would be happy to maintain. No namin' names. I'm just sayin'...